Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Counter-Intelligence Officer) in Wedding Bells- Neutral Territory

(snip)

For a moment a sister considered her brother and a brother considered his sister. They were two ships lost on the open seas who finally crossed paths again. They were not the kids they had been, they knew little of what the other had been through except for what they might each have been able to access on a personnel record (entirely lopsided that that access was). Inhaling deeply, Shara gestured her head to the door. “Let’s walk shall we?”

Gavin nodded and smiled, one that touched the crevices at the corners of her eyes. Lovely eyes that smiled true. “Let’s.”

And thus the siblings continued their reunion, no bloodshed in sight.

They moved down the corridor at an easy pace, the silence more comfortable now, though perhaps not easy. So much to say, so much to unpack, but now wasn’t the time for it. Or at least not most of it. Some thing though they could touch or should before this wedding got started. They passed the odd crewmember who recognized Shara (and frankly looked weirded out to see her again) and Gavin couldn’t help but chuckle at the response Agent Calloway elicited. Shar had never needed Intelligence to appear intimidating when she wanted to.

“Faye… I have an idea how you sponsoring her came about, but humour me?” Shara said.

Gavin’s lungs expanded fully and deflated. “Simple really. She applied and her file was flagged for obvious reasons. Which I have to applaud her gumption in using her legal name and not trying to pawn off an alias. But either way, when she applied she had no sponsor, which she needed given she technically was born outside of Federation space. The application auto-generated a sponsor because I guess a friend of you and Edward’s preemptively did so in the event she ever applied. But he was only a Commander and she needed someone at least ranked Captain. Intelligence called me to see if I’d do so and give a character reference, and well, we all agreed that regardless of how the Federation viewed the actions of her parents, that she deserved a clean state, a shot at something. So I sponsored her, but asked them to keep it out of the accessible file because I wasn’t wasn’t sure she’d be okay with that.” He shrugged.

“Just like that, that easy.” Was she incredulous. You’re damn right she was!

Gavin stopped, gaze hard. “Yes, that easy. I wasn’t going to punish her. She was a child when it all went down.”

“Funny, I don’t recall you giving mercy prior,” Shara said, her tone iced up like a vacation on Andor, arms folded across her chest.

He snorted. “You know, Faye called me out on that too. Repeated my own words back to me verbatim.”

“She has a near-eidetic memory. It sucks to be on the business end of it sometimes, as I know well.”

The pair stared at each other, but it was Gavin’s shifting expression that made Shara drop her arms, and then her gaze.

“I need to say something. I was going to wait but if we’re doing this here and now, it’s time then,” Gavin said. “I don’t have a ton of regrets in my life, but that last call to you, Shar, is one of my biggest. I was young and naive, idealistic. I was so sure I was on the right side of things. Do I think you and Edward made the right choices? No. But that’s because they weren’t the right choices for me, in my nice distanced place on a starship that could actually stand up to the Cardassian vessels that were picking on the colonies.” He paused, allowing a couple breaths to pass before continuing. “Shar, after the Dominion strutted away all proud of their victory over the Maquis, Intelligence agents went to verify the events. They documented it. If you haven’t seen the images, I’m sure you at least know they exist. But the day we heard the news, I couldn’t believe it. Not at all. It was a lie! I mean, how could we believe anything the Cardassians said after they so callously threw their lot in with the Dominion. It was weeks and I was determined to track you and your family down. I assumed that you all had just gone underground. But my captain at the time had a friend In Intelligence who had had boots on the ground on Tracken. And they showed me the carnage left behind.” His eyes welled. “It broke me,” he whispered.

A tear slipped down Shara’s cheek but she didn’t have words.

“I went a long time thinking you all were dead, convinced that it was in part my fault, that if I hadn’t written you off, that maybe something could have been different. I know that’s not true, but my words haunted me for a really long time. When Faye applied for the Academy, I suddenly had hope again. So I did what I could to look you up. Only to be met by so much redaction that it made my head spin. I could draw conclusions but I had to accept that you just weren’t going to be a part of my life. In a way it was easier to pretend you were still dead and move on. And now here you are in front of me. Alive, clearly more than a little dented, but you are around again. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all that we’ve missed, but for the record Shar, I’m so glad you’re out of the shadows.”

Though she had never been huge on physical affection, Shara was the one who initiated the next hug. She enveloped her brother who she had done her best to protect over her life. There was a lot either of them could say now, but as he squeezed back it felt like forgiveness, for them both. “Me too, Gav, me too.” She was enjoying life in the light, and was finding it unexpectedly content. “Come on, let’s go introduce you to my husband and daughter.”

He grinned, his eyes crinkling again. “Can’t wait.”

~Shara & Gavin